Apple quietly obstructing Jay Z's new Tidal music service?

Jay Z's Tidal streamer might have just had a bad luck falling from 20th to 700th place on iTunes, or there might be something more sinister at play with the maligned launch of the hip-hop mogul's cloud music service. The demise of Tidal shortly after launch was chalked off to the numerous competing services, chief among these Spotify, that not even Jay Z's brand can fight. Tidal was launched as an alternative which will pay artists decent money for each play, not the pennies that Spotify throws at them. The announcement fanfare, however, with Jay Z, Beyonce, and other assorted millionaires, didn't leave the impression for starving artists, and when analysts examined Tidal, it turned out that the new service will distribute only slightly more of its revenue to the actual artists compared to Spotify.

n any case, Jay Z defended Tidal, saying that "Tidal is doing just fine. We have over 770,000 subs. We have been in business less than one month," with the statement part of a counteroffensive on his Twitter account, dubbed #Tidalfacts (some of which is hilarious). Yet Jay Z also slipped an interesting claim among its tweets, saying that there is a concerted effort for a "smear campaign" from other major streaming services, and if the latest NY Post publication holds water, he might be on to something.

The Post writes, citing anonymous sources from the music industry, that Apple, for example, which is due to launch a similar service very soon, has deliberately dragged its feet about approving the latest Tidal app update, which is already out and about for Android handsets. Not only that, but artists that sign exclusive deals with Tidal, instead of Apple's upcoming Beats streamer, are getting softly punished for that, it seems. 

As per the publication: “Robert told execs at Universal Music Group that Rihanna and other Tidal artists’ music would not be promoted as featured artists on iTunes if they put exclusive music out on Tidal.” That "Robert" in question can be none other than Robert Kondrk, the VP of iTunes Content, who is in charge of the exclusive deals. While it's true that Tidal costs more than competing services, yet doesn't give that much more to artists than the rest, it might also be getting the stink eye treatment from the rest of the industry, with Apple at the helm. What do you think?

source: NYPost  via phonearena